Greetings from tomorrow
Made it to Saigon!
09.19.2013
Zach's quote of the day, "There is always a million reasons not to do something, I like us because we think of a million reasons we should do it." So true. Anything can work if you want it to. After a long travel day we made it to Saigon. The flight from Seattle to Tapai couldn't have gone better. We had a whole row to ourselves so I was able to lay down and really get some quality sleep in. Woke up to a delicious bowl of congee and alil Great Gatsby (actually wasn't bad) and Monsters U(super cute).
It feels so good to be back in Vietnam. The traffic, the familiar plastic chairs, the amazingly cheap food, and oh god the coffee. I'm sitting here writing this now desperately waiting for 6 am so I can have a glass. Thank you jet lag for even being up right now. One thing not so great about Vietnam is the massages. I forgot what I was getting into when I booked us each a 2 hr massage yesterday. I had been looking forward to having my jet lag massaged away for weeks, but instead I'm laying here literally bruised and beat up. Unlike Thai massage, a Vietnamese massage basically consists of being slapped, pounded, and punched with some hard rubbing mixed in. I tried motioning for him to go softer but no speak English. After my paid beating came the awkward tip situation. The massage total was $12 so I wrote down the Vietnamese equivalent of a $4 tip. My figure was crossed out and he wrote in the equivalent of $13. We went around in circles of me crossing it out and him writing it back in again all the while neither of us understanding each other. Sore and tired I finally gave up and paid him a higher tip then the massage cost. The same thing happened to Zach. In the grand scheme $25 for a 2 hr massage is still super cheap but its the principle of the matter. The whole ordeal left a bad taste in my mouth and it quickly brought back just how sheisty the Vietnamese can be. They can be very nice and genuine but most times they are scheming something.
I did not like Saigon when we were here last year and already I am getting that same feeling. Happy to be leaving for Hoi An today.
On our way to Asia!

Asia loves hello kitty

Breakfast in Taiwan

Crazy traffic
Posted by inbetweendreams 15:06 Archived in Vietnam
Have a great time! Let me know when u get to Thailand cuz I have 2 good friends there- 1 in Bangkok (Hayden Rhodes) and Chris Stevens in koh samui- they are both on my FB! I might follow in your footsteps!! Also it's a good thing ur missing the eagles game right now... Enough said!
by Jen Dabagia